Updated 6/1/2021 9:25 PM Two new state holidays approved by Illinois lawmakers last weekend will affect mostly state employees, and students and workers at public schools, if the bills are ultimately signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Legislators approved marking "Juneteenth" on June 19 every year, as well as making Election Day 2022 a state holiday, in separate bills during the final days of the legislative session. Pritzker is expected to sign both.
The bills would give state employees and school district employees the days off. Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved Black residents in Texas learned from Union soldiers that they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years before. Several cities, states and counties around the country have already designated the day as a holiday.